Background of Prague Spring

1956, Khrushchev criticized Stalin in the secret report made by the 20th Congress of the Soviet Union, and the * * * production party system in Poland, Hungary and other countries was facing a huge crisis. At that time, the impact on Czechoslovakia was not great, but after the 1960s, the rule of Antony Novotoni, the first secretary and chairman of Czechoslovakia's * * * Production Party, began to shake. Especially, Novotny has been greatly criticized for restoring the reputation of the victims of the 1950' s purges, slowing down economic growth and Slovakia's autonomy.

1967, Pavel kohut, Milan Kundera, Ivan Clima and other writers began to criticize the * * * production party at the fourth congress of the Czechoslovak Writers Association. At the end of 10, students staged a protest March about the dormitory facilities in Prague, which was finally suppressed by the police team sent by the party department. In addition, within the * * * production party, the Slovak * * * production party also expressed strong dissatisfaction with Novotoni's policy. In this case, Soviet leader Brezhnev paid an informal visit to Czechoslovakia. Novotoni expected the support of the Soviet Union to calm the situation, but Brezhnev thought that this was only a problem within the Czech Party, and there was no clear support (at that time, he said "этовашедело (this is yours)). )")。 As a result, the plenary session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held in June+February, 5438 without eliminating the opposition within the Party. At the meeting, Novotoni's leadership was unanimously criticized, and the end of his part-time position as first secretary and president was inevitable.

The domestic reform movement in Czechoslovakia from 65438 to 0968. Since1early 1960s, the economic development of Czechoslovakia has encountered serious difficulties. Although the new economic system was implemented from 65438 to 0967, the situation did not improve. Economic difficulties led some workers to go on strike. Politically, novotny, then the first secretary of the Central Committee of Czechoslovakia's Producers and the president of the Republic of China, took a passive attitude of resisting the economic reform and the rehabilitation of the victims of political injustice in the early 1950s, suppressing criticism and democracy, which caused strong dissatisfaction inside and outside the Party. In terms of ethnic relations, ethnic contradictions have become more acute because the Constitution promulgated in 1960 abolished Slovakia's ethnic autonomy. Against this background, the Czech Central Committee held plenary meetings in 1967, 10, 12 and 1968 to debate domestic difficulties, economic and political system reform, and the party's leadership methods. 1968 1 In June, the Central Plenary Session decided to dismiss novotny as the first secretary and replace him with dubcek. In April of the same year, the Central Plenary Session reorganized the Central Presidium and Secretariat, and adopted the Action Program of the Czechoslovak Production Party to guide the reform of the political and economic system. In May, the Central Plenary Session decided to convene the 14th National Congress of the Party in advance in September of that year, and at the same time demanded to fight against the "anti-Marxist tendency" and "conservative views" that appeared in China. In July, the Central Plenary Session adopted the New party constitution Draft.

The document published at that time declared that the goal of Czech reform was to "create a new, democratic, humane socialist model that conforms to Czechoslovakia's conditions". The contents of the reform mainly include: ① about the party's leadership system and inner-party democracy. It is believed that the centralization and monopoly of all power by the party's institutions will only weaken the initiative and enthusiasm of the state and social organs; The leading role of the party should be to concentrate the people's will and reflect the needs of society, put forward the correct direction and goal of social development, formulate principles and policies, and implement them through the party's political work and organizational work; We must give full play to and safeguard the power of the elected party leading organs at all levels, and the working organs cannot monopolize power; Important positions of the party and government cannot be held concurrently by one person to prevent excessive concentration of power. The term of office within the party is four years, no more than two terms; Party member has the right to criticize Party leaders at all levels. ② About the national political system and civil rights. Advocate a pluralistic political system, so that all classes, strata and groups have their own political representatives in the National Front under the leadership of the Producer Party, and all political parties are equal partners in the National Front; Implement a responsible cabinet, and the government is responsible for the parliament elected by universal suffrage; Ensure the civil rights stipulated in the Constitution; Protect citizens' freedom of movement, including emigration; Formulate a press law and abolish the censorship of news, books and periodicals, radio and television; Rehabilitate all the persecuted people. ③ About the economic system. Emphasize the combination of planning and market, expand the authority of enterprises, and enterprises, as relatively independent commodity producers, have operational autonomy and are responsible for their own profits and losses; Allow enterprises to voluntarily combine, compete freely and independently carry out foreign trade activities; Establish a factory committee, in which two thirds of the representatives are directly elected by workers. The factory committee has the right to decide the appointment and removal of the factory director, profit distribution and workers' welfare. ④ About ethnic relations. Change the state system of the Czech Republic and Slovakia into a federal system to ensure that Slovaks and Czechs participate in the political life of the country on an equal footing.

The reform movement in Czechoslovakia was intervened by the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, GDR, Hungary and Poland. The reform ended in failure.

The Soviet Red Army raided Prague airport and quickly controlled Czechoslovakia territory with airborne troops as fists, which was recorded in the history of airborne troops in the world and became a classic example of contemporary blitzkrieg and the use of airborne troops. Selected Cases of Airborne Troops in the World published by National Defense University Press pointed out that in the Prague incident, the Soviet army's bold and swift assault, electronic countermeasures before the war, strategic deception and efficient operation of the command and communication system fully reflected the advantages of Warsaw Pact countries in the C4I system synthetic operations in the 1970s, which worried the United States and NATO countries.

1968, dubcek, the first secretary of the Central Committee of Czechoslovakia's * * * Production Party, initiated the political system reform called Prague Spring, but in the view of the Soviet Union, this move tended to break away from Soviet control.

In order to implement a unified "Soviet system", the Soviet Union decided to intervene in the Czech Republic. In late June, the Warsaw Treaty Organization held a military exercise in the Czech Republic, and the participating troops withdrew from the Czech territory a few days after the exercise. After July, the situation eased. 1On the evening of August 3, 968, Warsaw Pact signed a joint statement in the Czech Republic, and the crisis seemed to have passed.

On the evening of August 20th, 1 1, Prague airport received a signal from a Soviet airliner: "Mechanical accident, forced landing required", and did not refuse. As soon as the passenger plane landed, dozens of Soviet commandos rushed out of the cabin and quickly occupied the airport. A few minutes later, the Soviet No.1 105 Airborne Division took off from Vitebsk, Belarus with 30 An-12 transport planes. Under the cover of fighter planes and bombers, they were airlifted to Prague at the interval of 1 frame per minute. 1 hour later, a car from the Soviet embassy led the way and Soviet soldiers rushed to Prague.

At the same time, General Ivan Grigoryevich Pavlovsky, then Deputy Minister of Defense and Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Union, commanded four Soviet tank divisions, 1 Airborne Division and 1 East German Division from Poland to Prague (west to the first 1 Army); Four Soviet divisions entered Germany, 1 East German Division cut off the western border of Czech Republic (west to the Second Army); Eight Soviet divisions stationed in Hungary, two Hungarian divisions, and one Bulgarian army attacked from the south (Southwest First Army); Four divisions of the Soviet-Polish Coalition attacked north (west to the Third Army). At the same time, the Soviet Union began a comprehensive electronic suppression of NATO and the Czech Republic.

At dawn on 2 1 day, the Soviets occupied Prague and arrested dubcek.

Six hours after the attack, the Soviets took control of the whole Czech Republic. Hundreds of thousands of Czech troops were all disarmed, and NATO had no time to make any response.

This military operation code-named "Danube" is a typical Soviet offensive in Front Armygroup. With the west as the main attack and the southwest as the cooperation, * * * used four front armies and the 1 Tank Army under four multi-arms synthetic army groups, with about 300,000 people in 26 divisions. However, due to the rapid attack, the reserve tank group army in both strategic directions was not dispatched, and only the tanks directly under the group army, division and regiment were used, with more than 900 tanks and about 8,000 armored transport vehicles.

In view of the fact that everyone has not forgotten 1956 the Hungarian tragedy, dubcek did not organize resistance. Only 80 Czechs were killed in this incident, which was greatly reduced compared with the Hungarian incident.

1in April, 969, Gustav succeeded dubcek and became the first secretary of Czechoslovakia's * * * production party.

Prague Spring is an international political event of great significance, which indicates that the internal cracks in the Warsaw Pact have gradually emerged, and can be regarded as the prelude and fuse of the drastic changes in Eastern Europe.

(English: Prague Spring; Czech: Pra? Skjero; Slovak: Pra? Skar; Russian: праскаявесна) is a political democratization movement in Czechoslovakia, which began on June 5th. 1968. This movement did not end until the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact member countries invaded the Czech Republic on August 20th of that year.

Under the leadership of alexander dubcek, the leader of the * * * Party, Czechoslovakia showed an increasingly strong tendency towards independence. In the process of domestic political reform, dubcek put forward the plan of "Socialism with Human Feelings", which retained some old traditions. Unlike the reform in Hungary in 1956, the "October Incident in Hungary" completely abandoned the old tradition. However, the Soviet Union still regards this as a challenge to its leadership and a threat to political stability in Eastern Europe. During the cold war, this was unacceptable to the members of the Warsaw Treaty. In addition, the history of Czechoslovakia refusing Soviet aid and preferring to yield to Hitler in 1938 still clearly exists in the memory of everyone in the Soviet Union. There are also some ethnic minorities in the Czech Republic, especially among the top leaders, who refuse to relax the party's control over society and attempt to overthrow the reformists under the leadership of the Soviet Union.

Czechoslovakia is different from many countries in Central and Eastern Europe. It brought Czechoslovakia to power through a smooth regime change in 1948, and there was no violent revolution and social unrest like Hungary. However, the Soviet Union expected to implement the Soviet-style Stalin model among its allies. It can be enforced if necessary. This policy was called Brezhnevism because of Soviet leader Brezhnev. In fact, this policy has existed since Stalin's time, but Brezhnev made it public for the first time. This hegemonism of the Soviet Union was not replaced by Gorbachev's hegemonism until the late 1960s.

This democratization process in Czechoslovakia, 1968, failed after the armed invasion of 200,000 Warsaw Pact member countries' troops and 5,000 tanks that started late at night on August 20th. In fact, shortly before the invasion, Czechoslovakia's * * * production party congress was ready to support the reformists and weaken the power of the neo-Stalinists. In a factory, the Czech Republic adopted a reform plan, but the ruthless invasion wasted all these efforts.

After the incident, there was little criticism from western countries, because during the Cold War, due to the existence of nuclear confrontation, western countries could not challenge the hegemonic position of the Soviet Union in Central and Eastern Europe.

This military invasion led to an influx of refugees of about 654.38 million people, including many elite intellectuals.

This incident also affected the position of leftists who advocated Leninism in many western countries, and eventually led to the partial collapse of these political parties.